Very nice Roy!
I had the same thing happen with the fan palm log I had. Constantly infected with fuzzy mildew and it eventually just rotted away. It was 5' tall and 3' wide at the base. The guy used a front end loader to put it on my truck. I can't believe I got that heavy son of a gun out by myself.
Next time I'm down your way I want to check out this guy's work. I forgot his name but he is working out of Gulf Coast Palapas in Baycliff. I've been discussing some possibilities with their newly opened San Marcos outlet. Anyway, it looks like he's got at least one palm in his resume and he my be able to give you some pointers on seasoning the local palms.

pjc, aloha, thanks for the tips. You're right it was literally so water logged that water splashed out with each cut I made. I suspect it will rot away because there are several big mushy spots. I tried to cut most of it out. We'll see. I brought it inside and will let it sit a few weeks.

Did I say that was a blast to carve?! So nice to be able to cut out big chunks with each blow of the mallet instead of the little chips I usually make...

On 2014-06-09 14:19, amate wrote:Very nice Roy!
I had the same thing happen with the fan palm log I had. Constantly infected with fuzzy mildew and it eventually just rotted away. It was 5' tall and 3' wide at the base. The guy used a front end loader to put it on my truck. I can't believe I got that heavy son of a gun out by myself.
Next time I'm down your way I want to check out this guy's work. I forgot his name but he is working out of Gulf Coast Palapas in Baycliff. I've been discussing some possibilities with their newly opened San Marcos outlet. Anyway, it looks like he's got at least one palm in his resume and he my be able to give you some pointers on seasoning the local palms.

Yo Allen, thanks! Yeah I've seen the ads for this place. Never been. Let me know if you're passing through. I wouldn't mind checking it out.

The palm finally dried. It's a lot more fragile than I expected! The head is threatening to break off and it shakes a bit like a bobble head. I poured some minwax wood hardener in to stabilize it. It looks about a hundred years old, which is very cool, but a lot of the features are somewhat flatter in appearance than when I carved it. Wish I knew what kind of palm that was. My plans are to avoid it in the future!

Jeff, great idea. I thought about that yet and if it comes apart, I may do that. You can see with the pic below that once it dried it started coming apart like a broom!

In this top down view, you can see some big gaps in the base where the fiber shrunk once the water evaporated. I had to glue a playwood base on the bottom to keep it from breaking apart. I say glue, because nails or screws wouldn't work on this palm.